Creepeb to prevent slipping on ice



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY S. SCHELL, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

CREEPER T0 PREVENT SLIPPING 0N ICE.

Specicaton of Letters Patent No. 26,961, dated January 24, 1860.

T o all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY S. SCHELL, of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Creepers to Prevent Slipping on Ice; and I do declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a perspective view, and Fig. 2, a ground plan of the Creeper as it appears on the heel, the boot or shoe being inverted, and Fig. 3 represents a modification of the arrangement at E Figs. l and 2.

The creeper consists of three plates A B C armed with points on their lower surfaces, and having their inner ends joined together by a single rivet. The two side plates B and C are bent and sharpened at their outer ends so as to cut into the sides of the heel. The plate A is bent at a right angle at its front end so as to lit the front of the heel, and has a hole punched through this bent portion to catch and hold the end of a pin or headless screw at E Figs. 1 and 2 previously placed in the heel; or it may havein this bent portion the arrangement represented in Fig. 3 where the hole is shaped as at H or K and is designed to admit the head of the screw F or G (previously placed in the heel) when that head is in a vertical position and to retain it when turned horizontally. A pin D is placed on the other end of the plate A, of such a height and in such a position as to prevent the side pieces B and C from revolving backward except to the small extent represented in the drawing.

To fasten the Creeper to the heel, the arms B and C are placed in a right line and at right angles to A, and are in this position pushed as far forward on the heel as possible; the plate A is now pushed forward dragging the sharpened points of B and C into the heel and causing its own bent por tion to slip over the front of the heel and over the pin at E Figs. l and 2 or around the screw head at H Fig. 3 as explained above.

The plan of operation here is essentially different from that of the creeper patented by IV. H. Towers in 1856. In that case all the bent ends were placed in position on the sides and front of the heel and the creeper secured by turning the side plates forward, their curve of revolution being eccentric to the curve of the sides of the heel. It came off, because in the act of planting the foot; which is pushed forward as it nears the ground; the side plates were necessarily pushed backward and loosened. This is obviated in my improvement by means of the pin at D preventing any revolution in that direction.

I do not claim making the Creeper of plates, jointed together or bent at the outer ends, but

1. The pin D or any other contrivance essentially the same by which the side pieces B and C are prevented from revolving backward.

2. The adaptation of the hole, and pin E or screw H, to the plate A; or any arrangement substantially the same by which the Creeper is secured.

3. The mode of attaching the creeper to the heel, viz: by pushing the points of the plates B and C as far forward as possible, and then forcing the bent end of it over the front of the heel substantially as herein before stated.

HENRY S. SCHELL.

Witnesses BENJ. SCHELL, JACOB SMITH. 

